The sanctity in which we hold God’s Word is shown not only by our response to it in our lives as we are taught within its pages, but also in our willing defense of its truth. This, however, must be done with humility, admitting to any lack of understanding we may have, or which we have not actually been given to know.
Why God allowed Satan and/or sin is not directly stated in Scripture. The simplest answer one might offer is that Satan and sin were allowed that God may give the whole of His creation not simply a greater example and understanding of His holiness and sovereignty, but also of His love in grace. It is an answer that is found throughout Scripture, whether being given by example or by inference (1 John 4:9-19; Luke 22:31-32; James 1:2-7).
The Rebellion of Satan
But let us look a bit closer at Satan to see more of what we are given to understand of his rebellion. Returning to Ezekiel (28:11-19), there are a few things to point out in Satan’s position as the anointed cherub: “I [God] have set [made/appointed] thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire” (vs. 14). The first and most obvious point is that God had appointed Satan to his position, even knowing what would come (Psa. 147:5; Isa. 46:9-10).
In Scripture, especially in the aspect of prophecy or parable, a mountain is typically symbolic of governmental authority and rule. This has its meaning here not only in the idea as being the “place” of God’s abode, but of the authority Satan was given as guardian cherub. It was his duty as such, in type, “anointed” as being a head angel, to make sure God’s glory as being Sovereign was upheld — both through seeing God’s will upheld in obedience by others, and in being obedient to it himself.
In this position which God had appointed him, Satan rebelled in an attempt to exalt himself above God. He sought not simply to take the “balance” (act of judgment) into his own hands, but to overthrow God’s very authority of rule and the design of His creation in challenging what measure of balance was to be: what God had set forth, or what Satan himself desired. This is exemplified in his method of temptation towards man in the Garden of Eden: first, questioning God’s purpose in His provision and command over Adam; second, directing man to the exercise of his own will in the desire presented by the fruit to “be as gods” (Gen. 3:1-10).
All that God had designed, Satan meant to call into question in order to promote his own desire to be worshipped in God’s place. Thus, the glory he was meant to protect, Satan tried to take for himself in exercising his own willful desire to be as God. In this, Satan was brought fully under the effect of God’s sovereignty in judgment by his very act of disobedience in his rebellion. This is also typified in the first Adam. Adam was meant to have fellowship in obedience to God’s single command, honoring God in His sovereignty in setting things by His will, but he rejected it by the exercise of his own will instead. Like Satan, man through Adam now stands under judgment.
In the exercise of choice beyond what had been given of God as right, judgment and death passed onto man. Simply put, our demand of our own way over what God has meant for our protection to guard us has brought us before Him, not in fellowship, but under sentence as being condemned.
Why God Would Allow Sin
This, however, raises other questions many struggle with as to sin itself: “If God is all knowing and all powerful, why would He even allow a being of His own creation to have the ability to rebel and sin against Him? If God is love, how can He allow evil (sin) even to exist?” Whether it is Satan or man, the question is the same.
Yet it could also be asked: If man insists in his own freedom to choose, should he not stand accountable for his choices? This is not with a desire to enter into the discussion of “free-will”; it is just an illustration to point out the hypocrisy in our wanting to hold God accountable to our own simplistic understanding of any given situation.
When everything is to our liking, of our desire, we rejoice in the pleasures of the day. But when some action or consequence arises that our conscience testifies to the injustice or immorality surrounding it, we demand God to be accountable that evil exists. Instead of admitting to the results of our own actions, or inaction, we want to blame God for all which is wrong. We even question His existence and love, in that things are not the way we would think they should be (Rom. 2:15).
The debate has been carried on for centuries, but for a believer, however, our understanding can only come through God’s revealed Word in what He has given us to know. We own, as believers in Christ, that greater glory and joy await us than what we would otherwise have been given to know, without such a gift of grace in Christ being shown (Col. 3:1-4; Rev. 21:1-22:7).
Satan’s Deceits
Many unfortunately think of Satan as presented to us in Hollywood movies, or as depicted in books like Dante’s Inferno. Yet he is even more powerful in his masquerade as an angel of light. In this way, his beauty is presented to suggest his “inner goodness” and is ample proof of the power of his deceits in the world around us. Satan’s beautiful and precious stones of covering are now part of his ability to deceive — making the most subtle of temptations seem the more beautiful and inducing us to think they cannot be wrong (Ezek. 28:16-18).
As to his ministers (generally, fellow fallen angels), they are just as able to transform themselves into ministers of righteousness in order to suit their purpose. These are not crude distortions of a make-up artist, nor that of a poet’s fanciful imagination, but beautiful and charismatic creatures. They are powerful in both their use of God’s Word and in the riches and worldly entertainments of all that which delights the eyes and flesh of man. Even in stroking a person’s ego, puffing up one’s pride in what they believe should be theirs, there are few more able. This is demonic — the perversions the enemy brings before us of what life was never meant to be, but which they present should be ours of necessity (2 Cor. 11:3,13-15).
Neither Satan nor his ministers are to be pitied or romanticized in any form, though they are often idolized in both aspects in today’s culture of entertainment and sin. But they are not the believer’s only enemy. One does not need to be of the supernatural to be a minister of Satan’s merchandise. There are mortal men and women, given to deceit and corruption, who are fully capable, in their use or rejection of God’s Word, of deceiving others as well (2 Tim. 3:1-7; 4:3-4; 2 John 7).
Christ’s Superiority
Satan possesses a number of stones of beauty, but there is a single Stone greater in brilliance and value than all of Satan’s combined. For those who believe on Him, He is the most precious of all. Jesus Christ is both the Foundation (the Rock) and Capstone of the grace and judgment of God (1 Peter 2:4-8; Isa. 28:16-17). When He returns in judgment, He shall turn and fall upon those who stumble and fall in rejection of Him (Matt. 21:44; Isa. 8:14-15; Rev. 20). For those faithful to His call, they are the children of God (Rom. 8:14-17).
To God’s children, Satan and his ministers are all defeated foes who have no real power over us unless we give in and allow them so (Eph. 6:10-18; James 4:7-8). This does not mean we cannot be tempted, nor that we may not suffer persecution at the hands of another, but that our life and strength are in Christ — as is our eternity. The battle is not even ours — it is the Lord’s, and He has already won!
Though God may allow Satan his operations, he can only go to the extent which God allows. If we reach out in faithful trust to God our Father, Satan has no force, and we are blessed in the outcome God would have for us. If we recoil in fear, God is just and will remain faithful unto the end: He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:11-13). Even if it occasions our death in this world, the greater glory and honor will be to God in a believer who dies according to His purpose in the witness given (Acts 7:54-60; 2 Cor. 5:2-11). However, we need not fear — nothing can separate a child of God from His love (John 10:27-30; Rom. 8:31-39; Rev. 22:1-5).
Alan Yerkey (adapted)